Living in fear of rape and destruction

FEATURE KUCHING: Like all Sarawak’s indigenous people, the Penan are faithful practicing Christians who treat their women with respect and do not take more than one spouse.

Despite the temptations of the modern world they live a simplistic god-fearing life eating mainly from the forest.

Last Sunday, several gun-waving policemen threatened the Penan community in Long Sebayang, who had erected a blockade in protest against the savage destruction of their hereditary lands by Lee Ling Timber Company, which incidentally is linked to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s sister Raziah Mahmud.

The incident is not new.

The fact remains that the Penan are constantly harassed and intimidated by gangs of loggers - armed with heavy vehicles, chainsaws and weapons - and their foreign workers, who rape and destroy not only their rainforest but their women as well.

The Penan women live in constant fear of these intruders who prey on their villages when the men are out hunting or attack hitch-hikers looking for transport to the nearest towns and schools.

Last September, the federal government disclosed a report which revealed strong evidence of numerous rape attacks, many of them on young girls trying to get to school, some of them as young as 10.

A number of babies have been born as a result of this abuse.

Federal investigators also noted a number of cases where logging workers pressured Penan girls to enter into unwilling relationships with them.

The report said that some managers in the logging firms were indulging themselves by keeping up to “three wives” in this way.

On desperate Penan father had told the investigators that he had approached a manager asking that he choose one wife and leave the others alone, “but he dismissed our concerns.”

Said the father: “The loggers have taken away our land, so they think they can take everything even our daughters.”

BN ministers have failed to act

In spite of the findings contained in the official report, Sarawak BN ministers have remained tacit, dismissing these incidents. They have refused to take steps to bring the attackers to justice.

Instead these leaders have continued insulting the Penan and their women, blaming them for these problems.

In an interview with BBC earlier this year, Sarawak Land Minister James Masing had reportedly described Penan women as “naturally promiscuous” and “normally start relationships as young as 12 years.”

To add insult, he alleged that the Penan were “very good storytellers”.

The so-called “stories” told by the Penan community are not isolated. It also occurs in other native communities.

Under the new Score development plans announced in January, over half a million more Sarawakian natives will be pressed from their lands in the same way as the Penan.

All this so that BN ministers can continue to exploit their territories and the loggers their women.

-The original version first appeared in Sarawak Report.